I noticed in your original post that you purchased a 590-4. I'll take that to be a 5 wt 9ft 4 piece. I also noticed that your username is bluegillonthefely.

In my opinion, you should not only rethink your rod model, but also your rod weight, that is, if I'm correct in assuming that you primarily fish for bluegill. Bluegill flies are generally small, as well as the bluegills that eat them. You may have more fun on something like a 3wt.

However, if you also catch bass from time to time, the 5wt isn't a bad idea. Or maybe a 4wt would be a nice compromise. Not telling you to go one way or the other, just something to consider.

Before you buy the new rod:
1. Find out what line your friend has on his rod
2. You should try overlining your current rod. It may come alive also.
3. As mentioned above, consider a 2 or 3wt rod instead of 5wt.

I fish a 6' 2wt TFO signature. The original WF line was a 2wt and I did not care for the rod. I overlined it with a DT and the rod 'came alive' and it is now what I always use in the small creeks I fish. Sunfish, rockbass, and SMB are my targets and the rod handles them all very well and all the flies I need for them all as well. I like slower rods as well since I learned on glass many years ago. I also use fast rods for my heavier rods for larger bugs and to fight the wind on the salt.

Another thing to consider is a DT line. Everybody is touting the WF lines including me but I really like the DT on the 2wt and I am considering one for my longer 5wt.

If the problem is just that your line is coiled from being on the reel, here's a neat trick that a member of a fly club taught me: pull out the entire fly line (not the backing) and wrap it around a smooth tree, fence post, or one of your kids (I had my 10 year old be my assistant on this :-) so that the midpoint of the line is around the object and both ends are in your hands. Then, tension the line to straighten it and stretch it a bit and hold that for a while. Voila! Straight fly line!

If the problem is casting form and technique (like me), having one or more skilled flycasters watch what your doing and instruct you is priceless. My initial plunge came from watching some videos and going out to practice, but the problem for me was that a video can't tell you what you're doing wrong, which in my case was pretty much everything. As a result, I spent years as an incompetent caster.

In the city I just moved to, the local club holds casting lessons every weekend at a lake near my house. I just attended one this weekend and it helped _a lot_ so I'll be going back as often as I can. One thing that will be confusing in the beginning if several people are helping you is that different people will have different ways to describe things and sometimes it almost sounds like they are contradicting each other even though they probably aren't, so you need to listen to a lot of advice and then pick out the bits that work for you and put them together. It gets a little easier every time.

If you already have the correct line weight for your rod (if it came as an outfit, you should), weight may not be the problem. OTOH, I believe the Red.Fly2 is a fast action rod, maybe similar to my Sage. In that case, overlining (putting on a line weight heavier than what the manufacturer recommends) may help because it will load the rod sooner and with less line out. I considered doing that for my Sage Flight, but a good fly line isn't cheap and might not produce results as satisfactory for me as a softer rod. I bought a new TFO Signature for $1000 + $10 shipping, whereas a good line can easily go $50 or more, plus the time to put it on. If I return to fishing the Sage in the future, I'll probably overline it with a 6, or maybe even a 7, anyway. I'll have to stop in a fly shop with it some day and try a few, then get the line that feels the best. Or I may just sell it. It's worth more even used than the TFO I just ordered, and decent fast rods are always available if I want one.

My wife is one of those people who can just watch a video of somebody doing something, then go and do it just like that herself. She's a hairstylist and learns new techniques and styles just from watching somebody do it once or twice, then practicing on her own. I bet she'd be a great flycaster if she were interested in it.

Bluegill I'm in the same situation here in south central pa, I just bought a Redington red fly 2 about 2 weeks ago, I'm praticing every couple of days of roll casting in my yard the rod is 9' 5w, my problem is fly line coils up on my foward cast, it looks horrible, I've tried all kinds of speeds and nothing works, my next step is to work with the fly line, I'm going to yellow breeches outfitters on sunday and hopefully work with some new fly lines, my sense is work with the rod and make the line do the work, any rod you buy needs a (mate) line to it, if you watch roll cast videos on you tube you have to think these guys just didn't pick a rod up and the hole rod and reel combo was right, adjustments are needed, there's thousands of rods out there & they're all going to vary. Hope this helps.

Why so much roll casting for you guys? Trouble with back cast rooms. Might not be your form or anything, roll casting is hard to accomplish with some lines, flies, and rod lengths.

Around my usual lake, the only place where there isn't either vegetation growing right down to the water's edge or a hill covered with vegetation only 15 feet from the water is a length of shore right nex to the park area that has a wide, shallow flat extending out farther than I can cast. Might be some fish in there during the sunfish spawning season (will check this year) but not much the rest of the time.

So, if I'm not in my float tube or a boat, it's roll casting for me, too

I fish a 6' 2wt TFO signature. The original WF line was a 2wt and I did not care for the rod. I overlined it with a DT and the rod 'came alive' and it is now what I always use in the small creeks I fish. Sunfish, rockbass, and SMB are my targets and the rod handles them all very well and all the flies I need for them all as well.

That's very interesting about the DT line; I've never used one but will consider it later this year when I get a 2 or 3 weight for bluegill fishing. However, I'm pretty much an exclusive stillwater fisherman (creeks aren't terribly common hear in coastal southern California <g>), so would that influence the choice of DT or WF?

In my opinion, you should not only rethink your rod model, but also your rod weight, that is, if I'm correct in assuming that you primarily fish for bluegill. Bluegill flies are generally small, as well as the bluegills that eat them. You may have more fun on something like a 3wt.

I do plan to also get a 2 or 3 weight, but I'll also keep my 5-weight around (as you surmised, it's a 9-ft, 4-pc, 5-wt) because I do sometimes catch bass by accident (had one that went right underneath my float tube a couple years ago and I couldn't move the thing for a few seconds, thought it must be a huge BG but it turned out to be a 13" LMB). Also, an 8-10 inch BG is (IMO much) stronger than a 12-inch trout, so a 5-weight isn't always out of place in panfishing. Granted, smaller bluegills don't put much of a bend in the rod, although even a 6-incher can be fun on a 5-weight.

I expect an 8-inch BG on a 2-weight would feel like a tuna, so I am looking forward to getting one

I do plan to also get a 2 or 3 weight, but I'll also keep my 5-weight around (as you surmised, it's a 9-ft, 4-pc, 5-wt) because I do sometimes catch bass by accident (had one that went right underneath my float tube a couple years ago and I couldn't move the thing for a few seconds, thought it must be a huge BG but it turned out to be a 13" LMB). Also, an 8-10 inch BG is (IMO much) stronger than a 12-inch trout, so a 5-weight isn't always out of place in panfishing. Granted, smaller bluegills don't put much of a bend in the rod, although even a 6-incher can be fun on a 5-weight.

I expect an 8-inch BG on a 2-weight would feel like a tuna, so I am looking forward to getting one

I do also love catching big bluegills. I have had many big ones on the end of the line that I thought were decent sized bass. Panfish always fight very well for their size.

Nick, if you like big bluegills, you should check out bigbluegill.com, it was made for people like us, and there are many bluegill flyrodders and tiers on there.

Jonathan

Too be honest, as much as I enjoy catching bluegills, I think people go way overboard with them sometimes. For example, there are so many different bluegill flies out there and everyone swears by certain ones and people always say they are so picky. In my experience, bluegills will eat ANYTHING that lands anywhere near them. I have even caught bluegill on naked bare hooks.

I do, however, also think the same similarly about largemouth, so don't think I'm just trying to put down bluegills. I don't think LMB are nearly as selective as people think. I think we all want to make it seem like we are fishing geniuses, when in reality, we could fish all year long with a black wooly bugger and do just as well as a whole bunch of fancy flies.

I do appreciate the link and suggestion though, and do wish you the best of luck with your bluegill hunt. Don't mean to appear so negative about it.